Council unearths more irregularities in KPUD

Council unearths more irregularities in KPUD

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The City Council has said it can corroborate alleged
irregularities in the use of funds by the Jakarta Elections
Commission (KPUD) during the 2004 election.

"We have discovered significant evidence of alleged
irregularities in the use of the city budget, including the
commission's failure to submit tax payment receipts on the use of
state and city funds," said chairman of City Council Commission A
for administration and government affairs Ahmad Suaidy.

Citing prevailing regulations, Suaidy said on Wednesday that
any spending of state or city funds is subject to 15 percent tax.

Referring to the regulations, Suaidy added, the KPUD had to
present payment receipts worth at least Rp 25 billion, or 15
percent of the total Rp 168 billion received by the KPUD during
the 2004 elections.

The council had asked for the council to submit over a week
ago certain documents to the KPUD, including the tax payment
receipts. But, as of Wednesday, though the KPUD had submitted
financial reports, the tax receipts were not among them.

Another councillor, Rois Hadayana Syaugie, also discovered an
alleged mark-up in the procurement of 250,000 jackets for
officers involved in the 2004 election process.

"We have checked with a major tailor in Senen, Central
Jakarta, the price of making a jacket of the same quality and of
the material needed. We were quoted a much lower price than that
of the jackets purchased by the KPUD," Rois said.

Rois added that the tailor quoted him Rp 25,000 per jacket for
1,000 pieces, or half the Rp 50,000 per jacket reported by the
KPUD in the procurement of around 250,000 jackets.

Councillors also carried out an impromptu visit on Tuesday and
discovered another irregularity in the rental fee of the branch
office in the Thousand Islands regency, which was rented by the
KPUD

The KPUD's financial report shows that it spent Rp 170 million
to rent three houses for the KPUD branch office there, but in
reality, the councillors found that the rental fee for the office
for two years was just Rp 18 million.

Rois said the commission would urge relevant law enforcers,
including the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to
investigate the alleged irregularities.

"We also discovered that several agencies with the
administration have been implicated in the irregularities since
they were supposed to have provided clear guidelines for the KPUD
to carry out the procurement processes, but they didn't," said
the councillor of the Prosperous Justice Party.

He added that the commission would also recommend the
dismissal of KPUD members over such glaring irregularities.

"With such flawed credibility, we could no longer rely on the
same KPUD members to carry out their jobs," he said.

Unfortunately, KPUD chairman Mohamad Taufik could not be
reached for comment on Wednesday.

The commission has scheduled another hearing with the KPUD for
Friday.

The commission has started to trace the use of state and city
funds by the KPUD in the wake of reports of a high-profile
corruption case at the General Elections Commission involving KPU
member Mulyana W. Kusumah.